Ex FM Taiana says Cobos' Malvinas trip 'irresponsible'

Ex Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana speaks during a rally in the Buenos Aires City neighbourhood of Abasto.

With Radical Party MP – and a candidate to run in next year’s presidential elections – Julio Cobos confirming a visit to the disputed archipelago this week, ex foreign minister Jorge Taiana considered his visit “irresponsible,” scheduled “without consultation.”

In statements to media this morning, the now Buenos Aires City legislator under the ruling Victory Front party strongly questioned Cobos’ agenda in the Malvinas Islands, seized by the British in 1833.

“Going to the Islands without any mission and spending a week there is an unfortunate political decision and a prove that (Julio) Cobos does not understand the significance of the Malvinas question; it is also a disrespect to (Argentina’s) institutions,” Taiana told a radio show today.

According to the former official and current legislator, he “never went and will never go” to the resource-rich territories because Argentineans' passports must be stamped once arriving in the Islands, a measure that was decided by the Bristih administration of the Malvinas after the 1982 South Atlantic war Buenos Aires and London fought over the sovereignty of the territories.

“That is one of the reasons why I have never gone nor will I go to Malvinas, even though I occupy no official post (now); the fact of having represented the country, makes me to not want to be put down to administrative control actions by the British in Malvinas,” Taiana said adding the controversial trip by ex vice president during the first administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Julio Cobos could be considered only in the margins of an action carried out by Argentine authorities.

“Being a matter that involves such an important sovereignty conflict, we should all act following the framework established by authorities.”